


make me a promise

by pansymione



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Bending (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Painkillers, Stab Wound, Swearing, Zuko's Scar (Avatar), reference to drugs and drug dealers, they're both in their twenties, they're roommates btw i didn't make that clear enough, vigilante!zuko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28654164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pansymione/pseuds/pansymione
Summary: Ever since Sokka learned Zuko's secret he can't help but worry when the vigilante disappears in the black of the night. Most mornings, he comes back with some bruises or a cut lip, nothing that time can't heal.This particular night isn't as lucky as most.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), brief Katara & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	make me a promise

Sokka woke up to his phone ringing at 3am, the moon casting shadows through the windows. He groaned and flapped his hand around until he found it, and frowned at the name displayed on the screen. 

"Zuko?" 

It was silent until a quiet groan and the sound of breathing made it through. He briefly wondered if Zuko butt dialed him from the other room, but then he spoke, his voice wavering and weak.

"I um- I got stabbed. So if you could, uh, help me, that would be nice."

Sokka shot up and rubbed his eyes, already getting his pants from the floor "What the fuck, buddy? Is your tracking on? YOU GOT STABBED? I'm calling Katara, but what the FUCK?"

"I didn't fucking plan it, did i? I'm nearly home, too, I just couldn't go on. Tired."

"I'm literally leaving right now so don't fall asleep and don't die. I'm calling for help."

His mind scrambled around the option of calling an ambulance, but Zuko would probably kill him and escape anyway. He woke up Katara with a call and explained the situation quickly. Hopefully they'd get back home by the time she came. The tracking that, thank Tui and La, he installed on Zuko's phone and made him promise to actually take it with him after he stumbled through the window bloodied and shaking a few months ago, showed him to be just around the corner. He eyed the fire escape and sighed before climbing it. There he saw Zuko, wearing that obnoxiously tight black suit, shining with blood on his stomach. His head kept falling forward as he struggled to stay awake, the mask long forgotten on the floor. The closer Sokka got the poorer the situation looked.

"You fucking asshole. Really? A roof?! DO YOU WANT TO DIE ON A ROOF? Do you want the fucking birds to EAT YOU?" 

Zuko raised his head to look at him and his lips curved into a tiny, tired smile. Sokka scoffed and knelt down, too scared to actually touch him. The handle was sticking out of his fucking torso, just far enough from his lung and stomach to calm his nerves. Barely.

"I need to get you home. Come on big boy." He knelt down and swallowed the urge to look away from the gorey sight. He slid one hand under Zuko's knees and the other under his back to pick him up. He was light enough to get him to their apartment, and hopefully make it through the fire escape.

Zuko was visibly trying to be quiet, his jaw clenched and eyes drifting from his wound to Sokka, way too cloudy for his liking.

"We're nearly there. C'mon. You can do it, just don't fall asleep, Katara will be here soon enough."

Sokka silently thanked Yue for the cover of darkness as he gently lowered Zuko down on the floor and opened the door. He picked him up again and shut the door behind him with his heel. The lights were already on and a very pissed off Katara was standing near the counter, arms crossed on her chest. All of her tools were already spread out, including the jug of water. 

"Lay him down on the floor and go get some towels. You'll help me take out the knife."

Her tone left no room to argue, not like Sokka would do anything other than help. He was back in seconds. Zuko looked around with a frown, blinking slowly and taking in the room. He saw the look on Katara's face and slurred something that sounded suspiciously like "sorry". She simply shook her head and knelt down, gesturing Sokka to do the same.

"Grab the handle. When I put the water on the area, take it out quickly, but precisely, in a straight smooth motion. It'll hurt." She directed the last part to Zuko, who barely nodded in response. "Grab it. On three." She summoned the water and carefully bended it around the blade, bright blue light illuminating the room. Zuko gasped weakly when Sokka grabbed the knife, trying his best not to move it. "One, two three."

The muffled scream Zuko let out was one Sokka would never forget. He looked away, threw the knife on the ground and grabbed Zuko's hand without a word. It shook and repeatedly weakened and strengthened it's grasp while Katara worked. When she bended the bloodied water back into the jug and started stitching the wound, Zuko bit through his lip trying to keep silent. 

It felt like an eternity when it truly must have only taken half an hour, but Katara was finally finishing off by putting a gauze on the wound and wrapping him up in bandages with Sokka's help. She gave him a whole box of painkillers, the strong ones, and packed up.

"Thank you, Katara. I'm sorry you had to-"

"Zuko." Her tired expression softened when she interrupted him. She looked so motherly when she knelt down and held his hand softly "Of course I came. I can't say I'm glad you nearly got killed, again, but I'm glad you made it through. I worry about you, you know?" 

Zuko didn't shed a single tear through the whole night, not when Sokka clumsily went down the staircase with him, not when Katara stitched him up, but now he looked close to tears. Katara stood up for the pills and handed him two and a glass of water. Sokka held him up while she gave them to Zuko and poured the water into his mouth.

"Get him to bed. He can sleep now, I'll come after work for a check up. But don't let him go to work or go out for at least a goddamn week. I'm literally begging at this point."

"Thank you." That's all Sokka could muster up as they hugged goodbye. The moment she left he turned around and picked Zuko up, with more difficulty than before, and carried him bridal style to his bed. Gently, he put him down and tucked him up. He was turning to leave when Zuko spoke again, sounding impossibly small.

"Can you stay?"

His voice always had this raspy quality to it, but instead of making him sound badass or hot, as it usually did, it made him sound sick and vulnerable. And Sokka hated that, the most in the world. So he sat down next to him and didn't stop him when Zuko shimmied over despite the pain so he could lay down.

"I think those drugs Katara gave me are making me a little high." He admitted. Sokka turned his face to look at him and indeed, Zuko was looking less pained. Definitely not worried enough for someone who just got stabbed.

"I think you're right."

"Well." Zuko looked him in the eye, having to turn his head more than usual. He had no peripheral vision in his left eye and his hearing was definitely damaged, as far as Sokka could tell. He found himself staring at the scar for the hundredth time, wondering where it came from. It was obviously firebending, that he could tell. 

"I never told you how I got it." 

Sokka couldn't tell if it was a statement or a question and he was too busy being embarrassed for being caught to reply so he nodded in confirmation.

"I don't think I'll ever have enough courage again. You'd have to get me molly and I'm the one chasing down drug dealers so that would make me a hypocrite, wouldn't it? I mean, molly isn't as bad as what they're selling but- I'm rambling."

"Look, Zuko, you're definitely not sober right now. You just got stabbed, man. I don't want you to tell me and then regret it."

He didn't outright tell Zuko not to tell him though. He was too curious for that.

"It was my dad." Zuko must have felt him stiffen, but still carried on "I told you that he's kind of a dick, yeah? I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill me when I was eleven but my mom didn't let that happen and disappeared for that. I think she's gone, but, anyways. He always had it out for me for being weak, emotional, caring. Loving. I think he hates love because no one ever truly loved him. He didn't love either. What him and Azula had wasn't love, it was just as sick as what he did to me. At least she's not disfigured by it. But I'm getting off track. When I was thirteen I had this friend come over. He was- He was very different from me. Loud, mean sometimes. Cocky. He didn't understand that our house had certain rules and that really pissed my dad off. But he let him come over anyways for some reason. Then, one night he told me he had a crush on me and that he wanted us to be boyfriends. I was thirteen. No one ever told me it was wrong to like boys and he was so confident and charismatic, I think I had a little crush on him. So I agreed and we kissed. Just a peck, really, since we were kids." Zuko was slurring in some places, but steadily kept talking while Sokka had an awful gut feeling. about what was coming next. "He went home and in the evening i got called into father's office. Azula stopped me just before and told me- She told me he was going to kill me. I shrugged her off mostly to show her I didn't care about her games, but she was telling the truth. It turns out she heard everything. And told him everything."

Sokka nearly jumped out of his skin when Zuko's usually warm hand grabbed his. He was freezing. 

"I don't remember much. Uncle says it was so traumatic my brain chose to wipe it out. All I remember is him grabbing my face like he wanted to comfort me. Wipe my tears after he went on for an hour about how I was scum and he didn't want a son like that." He sniffed, the sound impossibly loud in the quiet of his bedroom "And I woke up in the hospital with my uncle by my side."

Sokka knew Ozai has been in jail for taux fraud for years now but the urge to hurt him, make him pay for what he did to Zuko - literally the most hard working, good and loving person he knows - is overwhelming. So he just holds Zuko's hand and tries not to let him show how enraged he is.

"Are you mad at me?" 

"What? No!" Sokka immediately flipped on his side to look Zuko in the eyes, heart breaking when he noticed how red they were "I'm not mad at you, I could never be. I just really want to hurt him for what he did."

"Me too, sometimes. But I think I'd hate seeing him more than want to make him pay. Uncle says it's better to move on with my life than let Him ruin things for me after all these years."

"Your uncle is a very smart man."

"I know. I love him."

Sokka smiled a little. Zuko always had a hard time with words of affection, ever since before they became friends.

"And I love Katara. She's always so good to me even though she has no reason to be."

Sokka wanted to disagree, because they all, including Katara, had a million reasons to be good to Zuko and to love him just like he did them, but Zuko kept talking.

"And I love you. You're always here for me and you know whenever I'm sad or angry. You're the only person that always helps by just being you." 

Zuko sounds so sleepy he feels like he might be dreaming this conversation, but their hands are still intertwined on the sheets and he's still staring at him, even if he's barely keeping his eyes open.

"I love you too. Get some rest, you can sleep now."

And Zuko listens, finally closing his eyes to leave Sokka alone with his thoughts.

**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoyed that!


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